For most of us, our inboxes are one of the first things we let fall by the wayside when we’re too busy. Then before we know it we can’t even find what we need in the chaos, we’re falling behind in responding, and we’re stressing ourselves out!

There are many useful tools and tips for managing your inbox, but I’d like to focus on one today that I’ve found extremely helpful: Boomerang for Gmail. What I love about Boomerang is that it’s completely free, simple, and helps keep my inbox a help to me, instead of a hindrance.

Boomerang has 3 ways that it makes emailing easier:

Send later

This feature is as simple and wonderful as it sounds. You compose an email, then choose the date and time at which you want it sent.

Boomerang if no response

This is great for when you need to hear back from someone. You can tell Boomerang to return the message to the top of your inbox on a certain date if the person hasn’t responded. I love the time-saving factor of this – no more manually trying to remember if you haven’t heard back!

Boomerang for follow-up later

This is my personal favorite. If I get an email that’s important and I want to respond to it but can’t at that moment, I can Boomerang it for, say, 3 days away when I know I’ll be less busier. Then 3 days later the email pops up into the top of my inbox and I can take care of it. This is like a healthy form of procrastination (did I actually say that?) because we shouldn’t let our inbox rule us. If the email can wait until tomorrow, let it wait. And you won’t have to remember because Boomerang will remind you.

Like I said before, Boomerang is completely free, though it does limit the amount of times you can Boomerang messages. If you find yourself using your limit, they offer unlimited uses for $4.99/mo. Either way, we hope this tool saves you time and helps you manage your inbox like a champ!

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